Locals wrap up college baseball days

June 11, 2013

LEWISTOWN - Two local college baseball players, Penn State's Elliot Searer, and Bloomsburg's Nick Eversole, have left their names in their respective college's record book, while another local player, Lock Haven's Jay Hartman, gained All-Star status for his senior year.

Both Searer and Eversole were also seniors this past season.

Hartman, who only played college baseball for two years, led NCAA Division II Lock Haven in hitting for the second straight year.

The former Indian Valley standout hit .367. He had 158 official at bats and scored 31 runs. He had 58 hits, five doubles, one home run and drove in 15 runs from his lead-off spot. Hartman drew 12 walks and only struck out eight times. He had an on-base percentage of .418.

The senior outfielder had a fielding percentage of .980 and had only three errors.

Hartman was named to first team of the Western Division of the PSAC and was named to the All-Atlantic Region team by the National College Baseball Writers Association.

Searer finished in three of the Nittany Lions' top 10 categories for career statistics. The former Lewistown Area High School star finished in sixth place for official at bats with 686 at the Division I school.

In sacrifice hits, Searer is tied for third all-time with 25 and in the field he had 391 assists, ranking him 10th in Penn State history.

The senior finished in the top 20 for hits as he finished with 180 and needed 18 more to get into the top 10.

His name is also in other parts of the record book.

As a freshman, Searer had a 17-game hitting streak, which is seventh best in school history.

Searer also got his name in the single season record for sacrifice hits with nine in 2011 (tied for sixth) and 2012, eight, tied for ninth.

The only other local name to appear in a Penn State top 10 is Rothrock graduate Dale Reynolds, who had a .436 average in 1981, which is still fifth best for a single season in Nittany Lion history.

Eversole finished 10th all-time for Division II Bloomsburg with 36 doubles and he had 17 this season, which was fifth best all-time for a single season.

The senior catcher had such an outstanding finish to his career as he led a young Bloomsburg team to an 11-1 record the last week of the season and was named East Athlete of the week in PSAC.

Another local player, Mount Union's Kyle Morrow, was named for the second straight year to the first team of the West Virginia Intercollege Athletic Conference first team. Morrow, a junior catcher, plays for Pitt-Johnstown.

On April 27, Morrow hit a walk-off home run for his team as it beat Sheppard, giving his manager, Todd Williams, his 400th college win.